Like it or not, Miguel Cabrera's power outage is real  and readily explained

Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera reacts after popping out to second during the third inning in the second baseball game of a doubleheader against the Cleveland Indians, Saturday, July 19, 2014 in Detroit.
CARLOS OSORIO — The Associated Press

LONGEST HR DROUGHTS IN MIGUEL CABRERA’S CAREER

19 games — July 8-July 30, 2006

18 games — Sept. 8-Sept. 29, 2006

17 games — Aug. 26-Sept. 12, 2003

16 games — July 1-July 21, 2014•

• — active going into Tuesday night’s late game

It sounded like a home run off the bat. It looked like a home run, right up until it hit the center field wall at Chase Field — 407 feet from home plate, but about four feet below the yellow line indicating a home run — and caromed back into the field.

The oddity was not necessarily that perhaps Miguel Cabrera thought it was a home run out of the box, and didn’t run as hard as he might have, getting thrown out at second base after one of the world’s longest singles — that’s happened a time or two.

No, the oddity is that Cabrera has hit so many balls like that this season, so many that look and sound almost like home runs, until they fall short.

He had two Monday night alone.

“Cabrera just hit a long drive to CF. Last year, Cabrera would have hit that pitch out of the park to CF. Lower half isn’t in swing,” Bernie Pleskoff, a former pro scout for the Astros and Marlins who was covering the game, tweeted after the first one.

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As simple as a case of Cabrera — who spent the second half of last season hampered by a core muscle injury which required offseason surgery — not fully 100 percent, just like Monday’s starting pitcher, Justin Verlander, who went through the same surgery?

“That’s what I’m seeing here,” Pleskoff responded.

That’s what we’re all seeing this year, with Cabrera still playing well, still hitting well and still feeling well — yet not quite up to the standards we’re all used to.

Cabrera himself even acknowledged as much at the All-Star Game, before recanting later.

“There are times when I feel good, but there are always muscles that are tightening, muscles that are not functioning properly,” Cabrera said in an interview in Spanish with USA Today’s Jorge L. Ortiz. “It’s part of the process. The same thing is happening to Justin Verlander, but the difference is he pitches every five days, so you don’t see it as frequently.

“But as he and I talked about, we’re never going to offer any excuses for our performance. We always want to be out on the field and compete, and I think that’s the most important thing we can do, compete and try to get past this tough time. And the main thing is we’re in first place.”

A day later, Cabrera told reporters “I didn’t say that,” and intimated that’s why he frequently does not talk to reporters.

But, regardless of his testimony on the record, it’s pretty clear it’s what is going on.

Neither his manager nor the team’s head trainer were surprised by the first story.

“No, I don’t know what really was said. I read the article. To me it sounds like what he’s saying is it’s not like he’s unable play, it’s just that when you have a major surgery, it takes time to get things working the way they were pre-injury. Your body’s gone through a trauma, and you — especially in Miggy’s case, because he played through the injury, he could’ve gotten into habits that weren’t great for his power. And you have to work your way back from those sometimes. You have to retrain your body to — in his case — maybe swing the way he swung prior to the injury,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said.

“I don’t think what Miggy’s saying is ‘I’m hurt, I can’t play.’ I think what he’s saying is ‘I had an injury, I had a surgery, and things aren’t working, aren’t in synch the way they were pre-injury.”

Trainer Kevin Rand knew, as well.

“Sometimes he isn’t able to express exactly. I knew what he was saying because we’ve had a lot of talks. He knows he has more in there. Get stronger. In the beginning of the year, he had issues with his swing a little bit, just from adjustments he made last year. There’s a lot of factors that go into hitting,” Rand said.

“If you watch him take batting practice, it just keeps getting better and better over time. I didn’t worry too much about it when I heard it. I don’t know if the guy who interviewed him actually understood what he was trying to portray.”

Even without interviewing him in either language, it’s clear that there’s something to the thought that his power is down just a tick.

Had he hit the home run Monday, it would’ve been his first since June 30 (his All-Star Game homer, notwithstanding) and just his second since June 9. Entering Tuesday’s play, he’d gone 16 games without a homer, tied for the fourth-longest homerless streak in his career, three shy of the longest drought. The only three longer all came when he was just a kid, in 2003 and 2006. He’s already had four streaks (11, 11, 13, 16) this season that rank among his 25 longest stretches without a home run.

It’s all because his legs and lower half — while healthy — aren’t generating the power they once did.

“The power is generated in the lower half. There’s no question,” Rand said. “I was asked the question earlier this year about Victor Martinez, was I surprised that Victor Martinez was showing the power that he was showing. I said no, because he had an offseason where he was able to do his normal strength and conditioning, prepare his lower half strength-wise. He hadn’t had that. He swung the bat pretty well in the second half last year but now all of a sudden, the power comes this year. That’s kind of a similar situation.”

If it is a situation like Martinez’s — where he’s on pace for a career high in home runs this year — that would be great for the Tigers. But it won’t be the end of the world, if not.

“It could be a similar situation with Miggy, where it’s going to take a little bit of time, and you hope at some point in the second half, something is going to click, and not only is he driving in the runs he’s already driving in, but he’s hitting a few more homers,” said Ausmus, noting that Cabrera is leading all of baseball in RBI.

“But quite frankly, if he’s driving in the runs, I’m not going to get overly concerned about it.”